"Luke Hubbins and Jake Jervis are two 18-year-olds from Birmingham City that are desperate to get a chance to show what they can do, but I didn't want to throw them into the side when we were going through a tough time," Short told skysports.com.

"It's not fair on the lads to ask them to have to deal with that pressure whilst coming to terms with first-team football.

"I have been very impressed with both of them though and hopefully I can utilise them more when we are doing well.

"I just felt that we needed a little bit more experience to help us get through the rough patch that we have found ourselves in recently.

"Jake did well when he came on at half-time on Saturday (at Bournemouth), hitting the post in the build-up to our second goal and looked lively throughout."